While Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his constituents herald the peace and order situation in Davao City, Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II has dismissed it as a mere “myth.”
“Myth, kathang-isip, imagination lang itong payapa sa Davao City. Hindi ko sila dinadown. Sinasabi ko lang ang statistics,” Roxas said in a presidential forum on Friday at the Ateneo de Manila University, his alma mater.
Roxas said Davao City has the fourth-highest number of crime incidents in the Philippines.
READ: Davao City improves to 5th in ranking of world’s safest cities
As if comparing his leadership style with Duterte, Roxas then brought up the successes of the Philippine National Police in improving crime solution through “Oplan Lambat-Sibat,” the program he initiated when he was the Interior and Local Government secretary.
Roxas said crime incidence could be solved, not through violence, but through systematic means.
Presidential candidate and former DILG Secretary Mar Roxas.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
He again said that the statistics-based anti-crime program brought down the crime rate in Metro Manila from 918 cases to 300 cases per week.
BACKSTORY: Roxas: Metro weekly crime rate down due to ‘Oplan Lambat-Sibat’
“For those who are skeptical, this is blotter-based. We are regularly auditing this… That was accomplished not by some miracle,” he said. IDL